


Insoluble

by Magpythe



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Conan Identity Reveal (?), Gen, M/M, conan is sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-17 23:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13087503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magpythe/pseuds/Magpythe
Summary: On top of dealing with an identity crisis, Conan gets wrapped up in more than he may be able to handle after crossing paths with two unlikely partners.





	1. Chapter 1

The curtains are drawn, and the lights are off, and there’s no one here to see him. He can control who sees him cry, at least--the when and the where. At least there’s peace and quiet, empty and dusty and starting to look foreign because this hasn’t been his home, not for years now. Just two--it’s just two years.

Two years as Edogawa Conan, the name of ‘Kudou Shin’ichi’ slowly growing more and more distant from him. Ran doesn’t cry as much anymore. He’s glad, he’s happy. The tears have no right to be here, they hurt, burning his eyes. She dealt with worse. She felt this far more than he has. Now it’s his turn, it seems.

The library,  _ his _ library, is so empty. It’s full, of course, but he feels like a ghost here. Kudou Shin’ichi. He’s here, even though no one can see him. That’s just the thing isn’t it? No one else is here to see him. Right now he is Kudou Shin’ichi, he is the ghost. Conan has no reason to cry, after all.

He doesn’t realize he’s fallen asleep until he opens his eyes, dome of bookshelves and an unlit chandelier above him. Light is barely making its way in from the curtains, but it’s enough to light up the motes of dust slow dancing around the room. He fell asleep on the couch, something he hasn’t done in years. He sits up. Everything is so familiar. He’s sixteen, slept in, didn’t make it to bed last night thank goodness Ran wasn’t here she’d have scolded him, but he wouldn’t mind her company. He stands, bare feet chilly on the wood floors, and he’s seven, his parents are off on a trip and Agasa has been keeping an eye on him, but he won’t be over for another hour, that’s more than enough time to sneak a cup of coffee. There isn’t anyone here to stop him.

He makes his way over to the kitchen, climbs onto the counter and gets himself a cup, sets up his coffeemaker. It’s the same one that they had eleven years ago. It still works just as well, and he sips his drink in silence, not bothering to get off the counter. He’d lean against the counter here if he was taller, so this is close enough. 

The view isn’t dismal, it’s just different. Drawn windows, the only small bits of light trickling into a house so dark it looks abandoned. It looks like it’s been years since there was power in the house, even though the bills are still being paid and he just electrically brewed coffee for himself.

Most of all, the house is silent. The only sound here is his own breathing, the birds outside, the occasional scrape of an errant tree branch on the side of the house. 

When he finishes his drink, he washes out the cup and returns it to its original position, just like he did eleven years ago, and crawls off the countertop. His feet make a sticky noise as they make contact with the linoleum. It’s louder than the wood, he notes the well known fact to himself as he makes his way towards the stairs. 

He’s silent as he walks along the second floor’s hallways. There are plenty of floorboards he can’t bring himself to step on. The silence is trancelike, and he’s not sure what would happen if he broke it. He doesn’t think he’d like it.

The light spilling into the hallway from under his bedroom door looks almost ominous, like if he went in, he’d never come out. Ran probably left the curtains open in there for some reason. He shouldn’t go in, he reminds himself as his hand turns the cold knob. If the windows open then there’s a chance someone might see him inside.

He freezes up as he starts opening the door. A cool air meets his face from the inch of open space between the frame and the door itself. Did someone break in? Through his bedroom window, no less. That’s odd, the organization has no reason to be so overt...must have been a thief, then. What’s missing?

Pushing the door the rest of the way open, his eyes find the foreign object on the floor and he can’t help but laugh, if only a little. A baseball. Who was playing baseball out here? It could easily have been Agasa. His house is directly outside his window, in fact, it would be difficult for someone  _ not  _ in Agasa’s yard to have done this.

Maybe Haibara was feeling passive aggressive and broke his window.

Whatever. He’ll have to get it fixed before birds start nesting in his bedroom or the tree outside his window actually starts growing into his room.

The photographs here only send a pang through his chest and put a certain pressure back behind his eyes, so he leaves his room. He’s done with feeling sorry for himself for now. 

He isn’t sure how long he’s been wandering his house before he decides to head back downstairs. His phone and glasses are still in the library. Ran shouldn’t be too worried. She thinks he’s at Agasa’s after all, and that’s almost right. The question is what time it even is. Judging by what he saw of the outside, it’s probably close to noon. He should get back home soon.

Well, home to Ran. Not here.

Two thirds down the stairs he freezes, the air leaving his chest. He didn’t hear anyone come in, but there, in his living room, is the perfect image of highschool detective Kudou Shin’ichi. Conan blinks. The teenager’s head turns and blue eyes land on him. His eyes. He is standing outside his body. He can’t move. What?

There’s a noise from the kitchen, Conan can’t quite catch what it is, but he feels the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. A cold, tingling sensation runs through him as he wonders if he’s indeed about to  _ die _ , and a tall, blond man steps into view, defensive, ready to fight.

\--Hakuba Saguru? Why-- Hakuba’s posture deflates, changing from aggressive to meek in milliseconds. Conan’s eyes are drawn back to his doppelganger again; he can’t look away.

Oh. The facts slide into place. He can’t find it in him to be shocked by the Kid showing up with Saguru nii-san. 

“...Why are you in my house?” He asks, still in enough of a daze it takes him a moment to realize his mistake. His stomach twists in on itself as he watches the taller detective’s mind cease functioning for a second, then kick into overdrive.

He--He can’t deal with this right now. The Kaitou Kid already knows, apparently they know each other. Maybe he’ll tell him, maybe he won’t. He doesn’t know why they’re in his house, but that can all be dealt with later. He lowers his gaze to the door, walks past the intruders, and closes the door behind him. Not today. Not after last night.

He skateboards home, arriving there just in time to see Ran before she leaves to hang out with Sonoko and some college friends.

He supposes he’ll just go play soccer with the kids.

⁂

The kids, it turns out, aren’t very into soccer today. At least the boys aren’t, and, despite his dissent, Haibara’s right: he isn’t helping the mood either. The two girls wind up leaving to go and do their own thing. As if that will help anything…

He winds up at the bookstore with Genta and Mitsuhiko. It’s pleasant enough. He leaves the two to their bickering over manga to find a quiet place to hunker down and read. It’s a mystery book, one he’s read before, but not within the last four years. It’ll do.

He isn’t interrupted until he’s halfway through the 

“Hey Conan, you aren’t getting anything?” Genta asks, a few manga under an arm.

“We’re ready to check out,” Mitsuhiko adds, also carrying a manga. Conan recognises it as the most recent update in the long running series he’s into. He shakes his head.

“Nah, I’ve already read this one.”

“Yeah, you’ve read  _ everything _ , haven’t you,” Genta sneers. It’s clear he doesn’t mean it in a mean sort of way.

“Maybe, but just the mysteries.”

They run into the two girls pretty soon after they leave the bookstore. Ayumi’s cheerier again, probably happy that everyone’s getting along again. Haibara’s her usual self.

The kids ask him if they can have lunch now, and he agrees, pulling out his phone to call up Agasa when he feels a chill.

Someone’s looking at him.

He turns his head sharply, makes eye contact with someone behind him. Hakuba Saguru returns the look for another few seconds before breaking eye contact and walking on, disappearing into the crowd. Conan swears he caught a glimpse of someone who looked exactly like Kudou Shin’chi ducking behind the detective as soon as he looked.


	2. Chapter 2

One month after he exposed his identity to someone he only faintly trusts, and he still hasn’t heard anything from the other detective. He has to wonder what the Kid said to him to keep him from digging. Does he still think he’s just a kid? Does he know the truth? If he does, then Conan would have to warn Haibara, but there’s no need to worry her with this when he still doesn’t know the verdict.

Well, he does trust Hakuba fairly well. He’s the only one other than Hattori who really gets just how much coffee helps him unwind. Even though the man thinks he’s a child, he’s still bought him coffee from time to time, usually after murders. He’s learned a few things from working cases with him. Hakuba is a reliable detective. He’s honest and factual. He doesn’t have any great gift with kids, but he treats them with more respect than almost anyone else Conan knows. But...he’s not sure how he feels about the man knowing who he is. He’s friends with Ran. What if he tells her?

A small pang goes through his chest as he reminds himself of that fact. Hakuba gets to be friends with Ran, be physically there for her, when  _ he _ doesn’t. It’s not fair. She could easily fall in love with him--gah, no need to worry about that right now.

School is dull as ever, and ever since Ran graduated high school, he’s started skipping classes. 

It isn’t something he does  _ often _ , exactly, and he hasn’t gotten in trouble for it yet, what with his reputation for being involved with cases. Everyone’s just assumed he’s with the police when it happens, and hell, a lot of the time he winds up running into cases when he’s skipping anyway, so they aren’t really wrong.

The rest of the time, he goes on long walks, or goes to some cafe. He’s started to really get to know Beika.

Sometimes he heads elsewhere, Ekoda, Shinjuku, Osaka...He doesn’t go that far often, only on days that Ran won’t be home til the next day. It’s fun. 

Recently someone paid off a lot of the bars to not let Kogoro in, so he doesn’t worry about the old man when no one’s home with him. Not that he ever really did.

Then again Ran was almost always there before, so there wasn’t a reason to worry.

He’s heading over to Ekoda again today. He doesn’t know the area well, since he isn’t sure if Hakuba’s territorial like Heiji. Well, when he isn’t around Heiji.

He’s aware he could run into the British detective, and honestly part of him wants to. He hates the whole ‘not knowing’ thing. Still, that isn’t the only reason he’s here, it’s just the most concrete.

He steps off the train, and begins a benign journey to the center of the town. Or at least it was supposed to be.

He wasn’t aware that Kaitou Kid had heists in broad daylight.

Or, perhaps more accurately, he had no idea the Kid just flew around in the middle of the day  sometimes. There were no police cars nearby. It’s surreal, like watching a mythical creature just fly by without anyone really noticing. Does no one look up? 

He watches Kid, running to keep up. Where’s he going? The triangular white flying object does a half circle over a distant sky scraper before landing, and Conan picks up his pace. He’s far away, but maybe he’ll be able to get to the roof in time to get some sort of clue of what the thief is doing. That building is a business center, it shouldn’t have anything to do with the jewels the Kid was usually after. How  _ interesting _ , Conan thinks, a grin growing on his face. He should probably call the police, but that would get in the way of catching up.

Or someone else already did, he notes as the distant sound of police sirens becomes audible. He’s  _ almost _ there--

He curses to himself as he watches the glider again enter the sky, but something’s off, it’s not flying well. 

And then he hears the  _ pop pop _ of silenced gunfire, the sirens close enough they’re starting to hurt his ears-- the police can deal with whoever’s in the building, he’s going after the Kid.

Conan navigates the road with ease on his skateboard--if he wasn’t good at this he’d be dead after all, and closes in on the location he thinks the Kid landed at. It’s an alleyway, but he has no idea what side to approach from, so he starts by circling around the perimeter.

And nearly barreling into someone at ten miles an hour, someone whose face he catches a glimpse of right as he starts evasive maneuvers, and one that fills him with the right kind of adrenaline to help him successfully land and turn his skateboard around 180 degrees with some kick left in the motor. He stops just in front of the Kaitou Kid this time.

“You--” he starts, before being pulled up by the thief with a yelp. One hand holding him by his jacket, the other somehow having got a hold on his skateboard, he’s hauled back into the alley  the Kid had just poked his head out of. He isn’t in his attire anymore, Kudou Shin’ichi is once again, disturbingly, right in front of him. “Hey--Let go, let go--” He growls out, thrashing in the thief’s grip. He hates hates  _ hates _ being manhandled, especially by criminals, especially by someone who looks like  _ him _ . 

“Shut up!” The Kid hisses down at his ear, and Conan holds still, tense and ready to strike, but biting back his tongue. Someone was just shooting at this man, he reminds himself. And while it  _ could _ have been law enforcement, the police had arrived at the same time he did. It’s unlikely that there were any there at the time. Meaning someone with guns obtained illegally was in there, though that still doesn’t explain just  _ why _ the Kid was in there to begin with. He should still be careful though, he’d rather not be shot again.

He’s half placed, half tossed, on the ground, as if the thief’s afraid he’ll be bit if he holds onto him any longer. Smart. He’s bitten plenty of criminals. Also he has a stun watch.

“ _ Christ. _ ” Someone hisses from behind him, and Conan whirls, only to for the  _ third time  _ find the same detective in physical proximity to the Kaitou Kid.

What the hell.

“..Okay what the  _ fuck _ is going on?” Conan demands. Hakuba, he notes, looks like hell. He’s sporting a puffed up eye that looks like it’s darkening in color fast, and a busted up bloody lip. He wouldn’t have recognised him if his brain wasn’t working rapidfire right now..

The other detective whispers something under his breath, but he thinks it’s in English, and he doesn’t quite catch it.

“We’re laying low.” The Kid informs him, tone mocking. “Do you still have that tranquilizer?” The tone changes immediately to one more serious. 

“Yes”

“Good, cover me.” The thief tells him, as if that  _ isn’t  _ the strangest thing Conan’s ever heard leave his mouth, and crouches down next to Hakuba. Conan sets up his stun watch, since he’d still  _ really _ rather not be shot, and after taking a moment to check that there isn’t any immediate danger, chances a look back at the two.

The commotion he’d heard a second ago was apparently Hakuba changing into the Kid’s undershirt. Said thief is now applying a prosthesis to the detective’s face. This is really not the kind of trouble he was prepared to get into today.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a heads up, we have a POV switch this chapter. Thanks for all your kind comments!

According to his phone, this is the building: 27th floor, approachable from the roof. The stairs should be relatively unsupervised and act as a direct entry into the room he needs to get to. He really hopes it’s not supervised _at all_ , but he has more sleeping gas than he usually carries to heists in lieu of the usual supply he brings to slow down and redecorate the task force.

He’s going to have to do this as quickly as possible. Saguru’s still alive. He is.

The ransom demands were only sent out fifteen minutes ago, he’d better damn well be alive.

Blood pounding in his ears, he retracts his glider and opens the stairway. It’s clear. He makes his way in.

He’s right, the stairwell is unguarded. Most people don’t have direct access to the roof, and they clearly aren’t expecting any phantom thieves to crash their little party. There’s the door,

He takes a breath, steadying himself and giving his senses a moment to stabilize. He can’t relax, and he can’t waste time, but he needs to be ready for what’s inside. If Saguru’s dead--

Violently, he shoves the thought _out_ , along with a good portion of the emotions running rampant in his brain, and opens the door.

Maybe he should have worn some sort of disguise, or not his Kid costume. It’s too late for that, though, and he’s already thrown several sleep and smoke grenades. The gas mask obscures his peripheral vision, but he moves fast, closing in on the place he saw his detective. He didn’t give himself time to see his condition, he didn’t really give himself any time at all, only happened to catch a glimpse of him before the smoke spread.

There’s gunfire, but he’s moving, and he catches hold of a shoulder, and he feels his arm and waist grabbed onto, then pulled on as the other person pulls themself up into a standing position. Saguru was the only one sitting. He’s got an arm around his detective and is turning tail before Saguru’s finished standing, judging by the way he jerks into him. They’re running up the stairs, ears ringing. A bullet hits the handrail ahead of them and the adrenaline somehow propels them up the stairs faster. The moment he passes through the door to the roof, he opens his glider.

It wasn’t meant to carry two people. But they aren’t plummeting to their deaths. And he can hear the sirens hailing the arrival of the crows he called in on his way here. Good timing.

They don’t exactly land smoothly, but he does maneuver them to land out of sight. An alleyway, whose walls he made sure he rammed into and not Saguru, who, judging by what he’s seen of his face, isn’t in the best shape. Knocking the wind out of himself really wasn’t necessary, though, he’s pretty sure. Neither was falling the last five feet to the ground.

He disengages the glider. It’s too bulky to take with him, sadly, since they _really_ need to get out of here. Though, first--

Saguru is sitting up on his own, breathing (thank the gods) heavily. Kaito places a hand on his face, pulls it up so he can see the damage. It looks superficial.

“Are you hurt?” He asks, already starting to strip out of his Kid clothes into the civilian ones he’s wearing underneath.

“I--no, not severely.” Saguru responds, and Kaito lets out a shaky sigh of relief, adrenaline still running strong. After the Kid clothes are all off, he puts a hand on Saguru’s shoulder, standing up and pulling out his card gun. He needs to check, see if they’re safe for now.

He steps out, obscuring his card gun. No one’s acting strangely, and the police seem to have the building surrounded. That’s the best he can hope for, now he just needs to make sure no one can recognise Saguru and they’re set--

He hears the sound of a skateboard, sure, but he doesn’t realise how fast it’s going, who is riding it, and that it’s on a collision course with him until it’s spinning out of the way about a foot from his head. Holy. Crap.

Why? Why is _he_ even in this city? Doesn’t he have gradeschool right now?

Conan stops right in front of him and he wastes no time in scooping the child and his board up out of the open. Why he has to _struggle_ so much is beyond Kaito, and he _really_ doesn’t have time for this.

“ _Shut up_ ,” he growls down at the elementary schooler, voice a higher pitch than he expects. It’s the stress.

Conan stops moving, but that doesn’t really comfort him, since now it just feels like he’s about to explode on him if he doesn’t let go, so he gives the not-kid the space he wants so badly and just tosses him.

Saguru looks a mix between shocked and horrified, Kaito notes right before Conan collects himself and whirls on him. “What the _fuck_ is going on?” he growls out, and Kaito sighs. This is really not the time to be explaining anything.

“Language…” He barely makes out from Saguru. Hah. _Language, Conan_.

“We’re laying low.” He’ll explain the basics. It’s what they need to get through this situation. “...Do you still have that tranquilizer?”

“...Yes”

“Good, cover me.” It’s the most useful thing he can do. Kaito will deal with getting Saguru disguised. Kid’s shirt, a half mask, and a bit of makeup will have to do. Hopefully they’ll be able to snag a hat somewhere soon.

“Okay,” Kaito says, throwing the leftover things into a handbag. “ Let’s go.”


End file.
